The Name Game

So, naming AJU7 was not easy. The week before she was born, my husband posted two polls on Facebook about boy names. We thought we had a short list of good girl names, so we weren't worried about them. The boy names were down to a short list, and we had a girl. Picking her name took over 24 hours...

First we went back over our list. We looked up the "stats" on the Social Security webpage as well as meaning and Biblical history (since all of the AJ names are Biblical). Our front-runner girl names quickly were losing favor. It turns out that one is actually a lot more common as a boy name. The person is male in the Bible, but it still sounds like a girl name. Friends on FB that were commenting on my husband's statuses actually included it on their lists for a girl, but we just couldn't do it. Then another name we liked has a very common male version. The spellings are different, but the pronunciations are the same. So, again it was off the list. Another name my husband said he didn't like all along, and then he decided he liked it. y this point, I didn't like it because it had been off the table for so long. After about 8 hours, we didn't have a good name. We thought one might work, but we were going to sleep on it. My husband went home to spend a little time with the kids before bed (since AJU5 was very sad I wasn't coming home). Before we both went to sleep, that name was off the table basically.

The next morning we texted about names. That let him spend some more time with the kids (who were needing some daddy time for sure based on their behavior) but still think about things. He got to the hospital, and we went to work. We knew we technically had 10 days, but we would have had to go back to the hospital once we had a name. It was easier to get it done before we left. And we finally picked one out. One he had texted in the morning was sticking with me for a first name. Then, I "made" him pick the middle name. We had three middle names we liked, and it was more of picking the one that sounded the best. He got to run down to the birth records department while we waited on the nurse to get back (she had a new admit to deal with before we could finish the discharge) so we could get the proof of birth for insurance.

Her name isn't 100% Biblical, but the "root" is Biblical at least. Girl names just aren't that common in the Bible, and so many of them are "weird" or have bad meanings (and not-so-great stories). AJU6's name doesn't have a good meaning, but at least the person he is named after has a great story. And that story explains the meaning. AJU5's name has good meaning and a pretty good story. AJU7 has a good meaning, but the reference is normally just in genealogies/lists. But, it was the best we could do...